Moderation, Enjoyment of Life, Tranquility, Friendship, Lack of Fear

On the face of it, Europe is a leader in tackling climate change, on course to get 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. But the biggest source of renewable energy in the European Union isn’t one of the ones everyone talks about – wind, solar or even hydro. Actually, the …

To The Sunday Telegraph I was interested in your article about the lost history of the Cornish people who were captured and sold as slaves by pirates from the Barbary Coast during the 17th and 18th centuries. This subject is much better known about in Ireland, where the largest single raid took place. In 1631, …

On a beach by the tropical water stands a boat Anonymous, un-named, derelict and un-remarked. It was assembled in make-do fashion in metal. Over the rivets tar has been used against the leaks, Oozing through the holes under the baking sun, And dis-figuring the side of the boat. The old petrol engine, once painted green …

It once had a claim to be the fastest-growing religious sect in American history, but the prospects don’t look so rosy for the Mormon Church these days. The sense of confidence and momentum is absent in the current Church, which is registering only 1.59% annual growth – its “slowest pace since 1937”. That’s still a …

Philosophers have long wrestled with the nature of good and evil. Are they an inseparable duality? Are some things inherently good or evil? These questions seem too abstract to be answered by science. But by asking questions such as “why are animals altruistic?” and “why do chimps sometimes violently kill one another?”, biologists have arrived …

Mobsters have always exploited world events for their own gain, says The Economist. But “for organised criminals, Brexit is perhaps the most promising rearrangement of the European scene since the fall of communism”. Clearly, much will depend on the outcome of exit negotiations. But if, for instance, Britain achieves its aim of maintaining an open …

There were nearly 60,000 murders in Brazil in 2015, as many as China, all of Europe, Northern Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, the US and New Zealand combined. (Metrocosm, 12 September 2017) And yet the Brazilian economy is quite lively. You can’t just put this down to fevelas and poverty.

“Britain is now one of just two countries in the EU (the other is the Czech Republic) not to have banned corporal punishment, nor to be considering doing so. If swearing at children is worse than swearing at adults, the same should apply to hitting them. Yet we deny children the protection from assault we …